The Bramble is not a classic, but it should be
This U.K. favourite gets a southern Ontario shake
The Bramble is what they call a “modern classic.”
Invented in1984 by British bar legend Dick Bradsell at a club in London’s Soho neighbourhood, the Bramble hasn’t really been around long enough to qualify as a proper “classic cocktail.” Most of the classics — the Old Fashioned, Daiquiri or Negroni, for instance — have been staples on cocktail menus for a century (give or take) and so have stood the test of time. The Bramble isn’t old enough to qualify as a classic, but it became so popular after its invention that the cocktail community include it, sort of like giving it an honorary degree.
It’s especially popular in the United Kingdom, where there’s even a bar named after it — Edinburgh’s Bramble Bar. It’s less popular here in Canada, which, frankly, is our loss since it just might be one of the best spring drinks we’ve ever tried. Plus, when done with attention and care, it’s highly Instagrammable: for the first 60 seconds of its life, the purple liqueur drizzles down through the crushed ice and mingles with the lemon juice and gin.
The secret to this drink? Crushed ice. Without it, you won’t achieve the gorgeous visual effect. Cocktail bars use
“pebble” ice, which is made with specialized ice machines that churn out the hard and uniform nuggets that you need to make a drink like this Bramble. The good news is you can make perfectly good crushed ice with an old-fashioned handcrank ice crusher or, for an even more lo-tech solution, just fill a clean canvas bag with ice then bang it with a wooden mallet. Both methods result in ice pebbles remarkably close to the ones the fancy machines make.
Other than a little fuss with crushed ice, the drink is ridiculously simple: gin, lemon juice, cassis and maple syrup. The original recipe actually calls for “crème de mure,” (a blackberry liqueur) and plain old simple syrup, but our cassis and maple syrup are in keeping with the spirit of 100-mile drinking and result in a lovely modification with a rich flavour profile.
Here, we use County cassis and Juniper’s Wit gin, also made by Kinsip House of Fine Spirit in Bloomfield, Prince Edward County.
Method: Fill a rocks glass with one cup of crushed ice. Then, fill a shaker with ice cubes (not the crushed ice), gin, lemon juice and maple syrup. Shake well for 40 seconds, then strain into the glass over crushed ice. Add the remaining half cup of crushed ice and then slowly drizzle the cassis over top, so it seeps into the rest of the drink.
NOTE: Cassis is a blackcurrant liqueur that is now being made by several Ontario craft distillers such as Dillon’s Distillers (Niagara), Black’s (Peterborough) and Kinsip. It’s a perfect example of a specialty ingredient that bartenders have had to import but no longer need to. These homegrown versions are just as good as the European expressions, if not better.